A variety of upward acting garage door and similar closure member operator systems have been developed. One type of system which has certain advantages utilizes a flexible member, such as a roller-type chain, which is guided in a channel extending within an elongated support rail, which supports a carriage member connected to the door. The chain is trained over a drive sprocket which is drivenly connected to an electric motor for moving the chain and carriage along the rail to move the door between open and closed positions. When the door is in the open position, a substantial portion of the chain is "idle" and must be stored in a suitable storage structure or magazine.
Although this type of door operator mechanism has certain advantages, there has been a need to improve and further develop this type of mechanism to enhance its desirability for use as a door operator for residential garage doors and the like, in particular. For example, certain improvements in the arrangement of the idle chain storage magazine have been sought while providing a low-cost, easily fabricated, compact magazine structure and while still providing adequate support structure for training the push-pull chain in and out of the magazine and in the vicinity of a chain drive sprocket, in particular.
Improvements have also been sought in the overall arrangement of the drive motor, speed reduction gear drive mechanism and means for supporting the motor on a frame or main support member of the operator system, which support member also desirably includes the chain storage magazine. Still further, there is the ever-present need to produce a reliable, suitably operable system at reduced cost without sacrificing durability, simplicity of manufacture and servicing, and other parameters normally considered desirable in appliances which receive frequent use but do not normally receive careful maintenance. It is to these ends that the present invention has been developed.